Sri Lanka Dividend Tax Calculator

When a company listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange — or any Sri Lankan resident company — declares a dividend, it does not pay you the full amount. It withholds tax at source and remits it to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), then credits the balance to your CDS-linked bank account. This tool reproduces that deduction exactly.

The calculation starts from the gross dividend G. In per-share mode the tool multiplies the declared rate per share by the number of shares you hold on the entitlement date to get G = rate × shares. It then picks the applicable rate r using the following order of precedence, drawn from the IRD Tax Chart for Year of Assessment 2025/26 and the Inland Revenue Act No. 24 of 2017:

1. Already-taxed redistribution → 0%. If the dividend is paid out of dividends that were themselves already subject to WHT, the onward distribution is charged 0%. This anti-cascade relief stops the same profit being taxed repeatedly as it flows up a holding chain, and it overrides every other rule.
2. Non-resident with a treaty cap → the treaty rate. If the shareholder is non-resident and a Double Tax Avoidance Agreement sets a lower dividend rate (0–15%), that reduced rate applies instead of the domestic 15%.
3. Otherwise → 15%. The standard WHT / Advance Income Tax on a resident-company dividend. For a resident individual this is a final tax.

The tax is then WHT = G × r, the net you receive is Net = G − WHT, and the effective rate is WHT ÷ G (defined as 0 when the gross is zero, so the tool never shows an undefined percentage). As a self-check, the calculator computes the net a second, independent way — Net = G × (1 − r) — and confirms the two agree to the cent. Every rate branch cites its source in the module header, and the deducted tax must be remitted to the IRD within 15 days after the end of the month the dividend was paid.

• IRD — Tax Chart for Y/A 2025/26 (dividend WHT/AIT = 15%, final)
• IRD — Withholding Tax (WHT) overview and legislation index
• Inland Revenue Department of Sri Lanka — official site

The 15% rate and the already-taxed relief were last cross-checked against the IRD sources and the Inland Revenue Act No. 24 of 2017 on 2026-07-11. Treaty (DTAA) rates vary by country and are entered manually — confirm yours against the specific agreement before relying on the figure.